I also have a vivid memory of watching the original King Kong when I was approximately Kindergarten-aged. After they shot Kong off the Empire State Building, I cried and cried. Inconsolably. Ugly tears. Nothing that happened to him was fair or right. Again, I was... I don't know, 5 or 6? Jesus.
When I met my current psychologist, who has become the most wonderful person-centered clinician for me, he asked me honestly if I was, essentially, "some woke white guy."
I stopped him right there. Explained the origins of the word "woke," then gave him insight into my life. He apologized and said, "Oh. You've been this way your whole life." And we were good from that point forward.
It’s hard to be a kid with a strong sense of right and wrong and a conscience. I remember being terrified of the “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer. What if god decided tonight was my night? 😳
...yes. This was the kind of stuff with which I grappled in my head and like nobody understood me. It remains that way to this day to some extent. It's just... I survived, I'm 50, and now *I* know myself well enough.
This is almost always where caregivers and experts miss the giftedness in most autistic and ND folks, including and particularly those with higher support needs and/or intellectual disability. That deep deep deep sense of existential and universal equity, rightness, and fairness.
I know and have worked with many folks labeled ID and "low functioning" (what I call "higher support needs") who are/were also gifted... but literally everyone missed it and even laughed in my face when I pointed it out to them. Including and particularly parents... yes.
Same here. I was late to realize but things are falling into place. I’m 55 going on 170. My brain feels so old. It always has.
...always has... yes.